1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of mounting various kinds of electronic chips or device components on a printed circuit board (PCB), and more particularly, to an apparatus and method of mounting components with higher working and space-utilization efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, chip mounters or surface mounters are used to mount semiconductors or other kinds of electronic chips and/or components (hereinafter referred to as “chip”, “chips”, “component”, or “components”) at predetermined positions on a printed circuit board (hereinafter referred to as “PCB” or PCBs”). For the mounting, a PCB is transferred to a mounting position by a transfer unit, and then a plurality of components placed on a chip tray are lifted with suction applied from a suction nozzle of a mounting head that is vertically and horizontally moved and mounted at proper positions on the PCB.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are plan views of exemplary conventional surface mounters, in which FIG. 1 illustrates a surface mounter with a single lane, and FIG. 2 illustrates a surface mounter with dual lanes.
Referring to FIG. 1, this conventional-type surface mounter with a single lane includes a single lane 11, a transfer unit 10 which moves along the single lane 11 to transfer PCBs P1, P2, and P3, a component supply unit 20 which selectively supplies components using a plurality of component feeders 21, and a head unit 30 which has a mounting head 31 with a suction nozzle 32 for mounting a surface on PCB P2 by lifting or picking it with suction applied from the suction nozzle 32.
In this surface mounter, PCB P1, which is a bare PCB without any components thereon, moves along the single lane 11 and stops at a mounting position, while components previously mounted on PCB P2, at the mounting position by the head unit 30 are transferred outwards from the single lane 11 and stops at the position where PCB P3 was previously located.
A conventional surface mounter with dual lanes (FIG. 2) differs from the surface mounter with a single lane 11 in that it includes a pair of parallel dual lanes 11a and 11b. In FIG. 2, elements that are the same as in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and thus descriptions thereon will not be repeated here.
Such a surface mounter with dual lanes offers a superior working speed and mounting efficiency that is substantially the same as when using two single-lane surface mounters. However, the surface mounter with dual lanes has a complicated structure and occupies a larger space because its dual-lane PCB transferring areas and component mounting areas take the space.